


Send Me Your Charm

by Dreamin_doin



Series: Beads Around My Wrist [1]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern: No Powers, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, F/M, Soulmate bracelets
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-16
Updated: 2018-01-16
Packaged: 2019-03-05 18:36:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,728
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13393821
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dreamin_doin/pseuds/Dreamin_doin
Summary: A Soulmate AU, detailing the time up 'til Darcy actually meets her soulmate.





	Send Me Your Charm

**Author's Note:**

  * For [leftennant](https://archiveofourown.org/users/leftennant/gifts).



> I've had this rattling around for a while. I saw on tumblr that Leftennat was looking for some fic to read, so here's some new wintershock!

 When Darcy Lewis was two and a half years old, she woke up one morning to a blue and green beaded bracelet she thought it was a gift from someone in her family. She asked her older sister, and her two older brothers but they all denied giving her the bracelet. Frowning, she went to ask her mother about the mystery. After two years of getting the bracelets and hiding them from their toddler, Charlotte Lewis believed that her daughter could probably understand.

“Well darling, once upon a time everyone knew who the match to their soul was. Until one day some very unhappy people put a curse on the world. Now there were others who, although they couldn’t undo the curse, could work around it. They made it so that if you made a bracelet thinking of your other half and left it out for them that the bracelet would find its way to your soul mate. This is a gift from them for you.”

“Ohhhh… okay.” Little Darcy said solemnly nodding. She then ran off to borrow beads from her sister Mackenzie. She made a mess of a bracelet using all sorts of colors in no particular order. When she was done she ran into the kitchen where her mother was making breakfast, demanding she take a picture. She then put the bracelet on the same spot she found her own that morning. She kept running back into her room excitedly waiting for the bracelet to disappear. Though she went to bed disappointed, when she woke the next morning she was overjoyed to find the bracelet had vanished.

 

* * *

 

James Buchanan Barnes liked to think he was brave for a seven-year-old thank you very much. He did not realize how much that idea would be tested until his soul mate sent him a hot pink bracelet. He had worn the two other bracelets they had sent with enormous amounts of pride, but this. The other kids would tease him at school for sure. Sighing he slipped the bracelet into his pocket and went to pick up his best friend Steve on their way to school. Maybe he’d know what to do with it.

Steve, as luck would have it, did have an idea. “C’mon Bucky, just wear it. It’s probably their favorite color. Or maybe they’re trying to tell you they’re a girl. Either way it’s a present, and they worked hard on it. I’m wearin’ mine!” And indeed the smaller boy had a delicate bracelet wrapped around his wrist that proudly displayed three charms: a ballerina, a pair of pointe shoes, and a tiny swan. Sighing Bucky followed suit and put on his mate’s bracelet.

Somehow, his mother was _not_ that surprised when two weeks later she was called into the principal’s office. Apparently Steve and Bucky had decided that they would take care of the boys bullying them with their fists. When Bucky explained to his ma that he was protecting his bracelet, she couldn’t help but feel a little bit proud of his changed attitude though she made sure to seem plenty disappointed in his actions for the principal.

 

* * *

 

Darcy was in distress. Today had been _weird_. First her cousin Elena met her soul mate at a soccer game. Frank was nice and was so excited to meet the girl who made his bracelets. Then her parents and uncles had decided that it would be nice to go out to eat to celebrate Elena finding her match. At dinner, shortly after ordering, her other cousin Christina had her bracelet break—beads flying everywhere—and the adults had to explain to a table of distressed six, seven, and eight year olds that Christina’s soul mate, once a promised guarantee, was dead. So, an hour past her bedtime, Darcy was up by the light of a flashlight scrabbling through drawers and music boxes finding all the loose beads and charms she had. Having finished the bracelet, she carefully put it on her dresser, and closed her eyes tugging on the connection she had felt forming slowly with each bracelet she and her match exchanged. She woke the next morning, curled at the foot of her dresser, feelings of comfort and reassurance soothing the ache in her chest. A brand new bracelet filled with superhero beads topped it all off.

The next time Darcy saw Christina; she gave her the animal bracelet that Darcy’s soul mate had sent her earlier in the year. Elena’s soul mate Frank told Christina—and all the other cousins—that he’d happily fill in for all the soul mates that couldn’t be around. It had resulted in a big group hug, and also a lot of tears, as the eight cousins who were all around the same age mourned someone they’d never get to meet.

 

* * *

 

Bucky _hated_ that he and his soul mate exchanged bracelets annually. It made his girlfriend so mad at him. He had tried to explain that he was pretty sure they were younger and so they probably wouldn’t meet for a long time but she wouldn’t listen. So to soothe her anger he let her design the bracelet. It was the simplest one he’d ever send. Just some yarn and a single blue bead, but Bucky sent it on just the same and hoped his mate would understand. Judging from the childish bracelet he got back, he didn’t think they did.

Three months later when his first girlfriend broke his heart, and Bucky didn’t know how to move on he received a really cool comic book charm bracelet. Angry at how his mate had tried to sooth him, and angry with the girl he’d fallen for, he sent a bracelet with some letter beads he bought specifically for this bracelet. He crafted it late at night, knowing in his heart of hearts that he should drop it. The next morning when he woke to the bracelet gone, he felt a ton of guilt drop onto his shoulders. His younger mate didn’t deserve the thirteen year old angst he’d just thrown at them. He made an apology bracelet and sent it as soon as possible but he didn’t get anything back.

 

* * *

 

This year Darcy was refusing to send her supposed soul mate a bracelet. After waking up to a bracelet that told her to fuck off—something she had had to go to her oldest brother to understand—she didn’t want to share even the smallest piece of herself with the person who the universe thought was her perfect match. They, whoever they were, obviously didn’t want her so why bother. Instead she made a bracelet for Frank, who was still very generously and with Elena’s blessing, filling in for all the unknown soul mates of the family.

The next year, a twelve-year-old Darcy was still holding onto her grudge pretty hard. She had ignored the bracelets her soul mate had sent; things made of yarn and spelling out sorry but the feeling of remorse was missing. So Darcy hadn’t budged on the issue. That is, until one morning, she receives a bracelet with one charm. It’s a limited edition charm from a movie based on one of Darcy’s favorite books. She had been looking for it for months. Plus, her soul mate had sent real true feelings of remorse down their bond this time. After thinking it over all day, and talking to her brothers and sister, Darcy made a simple bracelet. She was woken in the night by the deep reaching relief she felt down their bond. As she drifted off to sleep she thought they might still be okay.

 

* * *

 

     

The next few years the bracelets exchanged between Bucky and Darcy were typical of what young people sent each other. School colors, activities like sports and band, cars for their sixteenth birthdays and graduation caps when they’re graduating. Safe, and nothing that will strain their relationship. Bucky tries to put the name of the college he’s going to attend but his ma, who has never knowingly allowed letter beads, lectures him about how fate knows what its doing, and for him to leave his poor mate alone for the time being. Still, that first year he’s at school when it comes time for them to send their annual bracelet—less that some matches but more than others—he can’t help but add a bead that his younger sister had added to a care package the first time he got home sick. When Darcy gets the bracelet, she can’t help but to feel like her soul mate has shown a tiny piece of his—and she’s pretty sure her soul mate is a he—soul.

 

* * *

 

When Darcy got the bracelet that held the bead that traditionally signified someone’s soul mate was joining the military, she withdrew from her friends and family. She was terrified that she was going to lose her soul mate the way Christina had lost hers. True, Christina was a BAMF and she didn’t let that one thing define her. But Darcy was only seventeen, and she didn’t know how to deal with this change. Still, eventually Donny got the story out of her and together they made her soul mate a bracelet filled with protection and care.

Two years later when Darcy got the bracelet that came with the specific military bead of the army, and a globe meaning he was being assigned internationally she gave out beads to everyone with the instruction that they were to put everything good into the bead. What else could she do besides hope?

 

* * *

 

The first year Bucky was deployed, he’d looked for beads for days. Though they weren’t available in the same way as they were in America, lots of markets held tiny handmade glass beads. After shopping with Steve, who had joined up with him, Bucky sends a rainbow of these tiny beads to his soul mate. The bracelet he gets in return, a Para cord wrapped around tiny charms of things he loved at home, makes him feel warm and cared for. It makes him stop for a moment, shocked at how much this person really has already touched his life.

 

* * *

 

Darcy was looking forward to her twenty-first birthday. She was going to send her mate an alcohol filled bracelet, as he had sent her, and then she was going to hit all the clubs with her friends. Her boss had kindly given her the next day off so she didn’t have any worries. It was while she was getting ready for the night that she first noticed it. The string of her bracelet, a strechy material, was starting to fray.

As she watched more and more strings started to unwind from the core of the bracelet. Horrified Darcy tore it off her arm. She kept an eye on it as she grabbed all her bracelet making materials and started to thread beads onto string, pouring sheer stubborn will into each and every bead as well as her bond, which she could feel weakening as well. She used anything she could for string, and any sort of bead or charm with no regard for how odd it might be. If she was going to lose him, she was going to send enough bracelets to make up for all the years they would miss together first.

She canceled on her friends, and called Christina with tears blocking her throat, one hand always making a bracelet. After more agonizing hours than she can count she feels just the barest of tiny tugs on their connection; overwhelmed with relief Darcy passes out into an exhausted sleep. When she wakes in the morning the bracelets are all gone, which means he’s still alive and she cries again. She begs her roommate to go buy more beads and string on the fourth day, sure that if she stops now, before he sends her something back, that all her hard work will be for nothing. She continues that for weeks, absent mindedly making bracelets in the middle of class or work, only to send them along at night, hoping that something will be sent back.

One day, about three weeks later, she does _finally_ get a bracelet back. Just a simple green bracelet on a string, but he sent it, and he’s alive, and that’s enough for Darcy.

 

* * *

 

Bucky had returned from war with an honorable discharge and an empty space in his sleeve. Steve had pulled some strings and gotten him into some crazy trial for prosthetics with Tony Stark. He was recovering, and some days were better than others. Often he woke with comfort being passed along down his bond with his soul mate. He felt bad for her—and he was almost sure it was a her by now—he knew he’d been worrying her this year. But whenever he voiced that around others, they told him that when they met, his mate would understand.

Still, he wanted to do something special for this bracelet so he asked Tony for a small spool of wire made from the same material as his new arm. When Tony found out what it was for, he gave Bucky a bigger spool than what he could possibly use for one bracelet. Eventually he sent her a bracelet made of braided wire that held a heart charm, the glass beads he liked, and a small rose bead. He got a bracelet of movie themed charms that included popcorn and soda charms, and the sense of relief that he had managed to send a bracelet.

Feeling sheepish, Bucky pulled out the tub of bracelets his mate had made for him in the immediate aftermath of his injury. He makes a bracelet using a bead from each one of the bracelets. In between each one he places a letter to spell out the phrase “I’m here to stay”. By the time he’s done it’s quite a long bracelet. His mate would probably have to wrap it around their wrist a few times. But it’s important to Bucky that he sends it.

The next morning he wakes to a bracelet with a light saber charm, “I know” in letter beads, and a small heart attached to it. He runs out into the living room where Steve, and his newly met soul mate Natasha are sitting eating breakfast. He practically shoves the gift under Steve’s nose, proud as a peacock, stating, “Look how much moxie my girl’s got!”

 

* * *

 

The next two years had passed quickly for Darcy. She had been focusing on graduating on time, and finding a job. Luckily she had managed both. She had just moved to New York City, where she was working in the PR department for Stark Industries. Her friend Jane who she knew through school also worked there, and had sent along the position posting when it opened to the general public. Now they were living together and—kinda—working together. She still hadn’t met her soul mate but she could feel the itch he had to meet her. Darcy wanted to meet him too, but she didn’t want to rush fate. For now, the bracelets would do. They sent them a little more often than twice a year now, whenever one of them was thinking about the other. Darcy still had a habit of checking the strings on hers often, left over from the year when strings would fray and solidify in a matter of hours. But her mate’s been getting better, the periods of fraying less frequent and she hopes that whatever he’s doing he’s happy. She has a feeling they’ll be meeting soon, and she can’t help but glance at the wrist of every new person she meets; waiting for the bracelet that she knows she made.

Then one day, Pepper Potts has asked for a PR manager to go to a lab to meet one of their trial participants. Darcy gets the literal short straw and heads down there. She greets Tony, and then turns to the participant. She meets his blue eyes with a smile and when he reaches out to shake her hand it’s then she sees the light saber charm she had been including with every bracelet for the past two years.

“That’s my bracelet!” She hears her words echo, and when she meets his eyes again, she knows she’s found her soul mate.

 

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> This is the end for now. I have some further ideas cooking for this AU, like what happens after they meet but when I add anything it'll be a new work in the series.


End file.
